Turning Paths Into Trajectories Using Parabolic Blends

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Abstract

We present an approach for converting a path
of multiple continuous linear segments into a trajectory that
satisfies velocity and acceleration constraints and closely follows
the given path without coming to a complete stop at every
waypoint. Our method applies parabolic blends around waypoints
to improve speed. In contrast to established methods that
smooth trajectories with parabolic blends, our method does not
require the timing of waypoints or durations of blend phases.
This makes our approach particularly useful for robots that
must follow kinematic paths that are not explicitly parametrized
by time. Our method chooses timing automatically to achieve
high performance while satisfying the velocity and acceleration
constraints of a given robot.